The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1887-08-18
OVER ONE HUNDRED KILLED.
Appalling Railroad Disaster.

1 9 !. -
CHICAGO, August 11.-A special to
the Chicago Times from Forest, Ill, says:
ALI the railway horrors in the history
of this country were surpassed three
miles east of Chattsworth last night,
when an excursion train on the Toledo,
Peoria and Western Railroad dropped
through burning bridge and over one
hundred people we're killed and four
times that number more or less badly
injured. The train was composed of six
sleeping cars, six day coaches and chair
.carssand, three baggage cars. 1t was car
lyiug 1850 passengers, all e1cursionists
and was bound for Niagara Falls. The
train had been made up all along the
line of the Toledo, Peoria and Western
Railroad, aud the excursionists hailed
from various points in central Illinois,
the bulk of them, however, coming from
Peoria. Some Of the passengers came
from Canton, ELPssso, Washington, and
B u ssct s1 stations along the line, and
some came from as far West as BnrliDg
ton and Keokuk. a special and cheap
: rate had been made for the excursion.
and all Of people took advantage Of
it. When the train drew out of Peoria
at 5 o'clock last evening it was loaded to
Its utraost capacity. Every berth in the
six sleepers were taken, and the cars
carried sixty people each. The train
was so heavy that two engines were
hitched to it, and when it passed this
place, it was an hour and half behind.
Chattsworth, the next station east of
there, is six miles of, and the run there
was made in seven minutes. So the ter.
rible momentum of these fifteen coaches
and two engines, shooting through space
at the rate ofa mile minute, is under.
stood. No stop was made at Chats.
worth, and on the heavy train, with its
living freight, sped through the darkness
of the night.
Three miles of Chattsworth is little
slough, and where the railroad crosses a
: dry run about ten feet deep and fifteen
feet wide. Over this was stretched an
ordinary wooden trestle bridge, and as
the excursion train came laundering
down ON it, what was the horror of the
engineer ON the front engine when he
saw that the bridge was burning. Right
up; before his eyes leaped the bright
flames, and the next instant he was
among them. There vas no chance
to stop. Had there been any warn
ing il. would. have taken half mile
to- stop, and the train was within 100
yards of the red.tongued messenger of
death before they flashed their fatal sig
nails into. the engineers face. But he
went over in safety, the first engine keep
ing the rails. AS it went over, the bridge
fell beneath il, and it could only have
been the terrific speed of the train that
saved the lives of engineer and fireman.
But the next engine went down, and
instantly
THE DEED OF DEATH WAS DONE.
Car crushed into Car, coaches piled
one on top Of another, and in the twink.
ling ofan eye nearly one hundred peo-
pie found instant death and fifty more
sewere 80 hurt that they could not live.
iAs for the wounded, they were every
owhere: Only the. sleeping coaches
Z escaped and as the startled and half
dressed passengers came tumbling out of
them they found such scene Of death as
SIS rarely witnessed, and such work to do
that it seemed as human hands were
utterly incapable. 1t lacked but five
: